Administrators in the Chicago public schools are seeking to strike the right balance between providing guidance and permitting flexibility as they put in place the nation's first state mandate for providing bilingual education to preschoolers. New rules approved by the Illinois state board of education in June flesh out a January 2009 change that…

In elementary and secondary education governance, the need to build an effective system of public education is the driving force behind the selection of a state's key education leaders. This paper provides a snapshot of what state K-12 governance looks like in SREB states. (Contains 7 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to look at the relationship between selected Texas public school superintendents and school boards to determine the communication factors that help to make for stronger relationships. This study attempted to describe the relationship between the superintendent and school board in terms of effective communication…

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions of superintendent search consultants as they relate to the selection of superintendent candidates. The synergistic leadership theory (SLT) developed by Irby, Brown, Duffy and Trautman (2002) provided the theoretical framework needed to analyze the characteristics search consultants perceive…

This study examined the extent to which Texas school boards of education made efforts to locally modify student speech policy. Using online policy manuals provided by the Texas Association of School Boards, speech policies for 91 school districts were gathered using a purposive stratified sampling procedure and examined for local modifications to…

This paper describes the use of advisory boards in the development of two competency-based business programs: one graduate and the other undergraduate. Though the programs varied significantly in structure and content, both used focus group methodology to collect comprehensive and relevant input from advisory board members comprised of local…

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the quality of education for school children in Texas was inconsistent and control of public schools resided with local communities. As a result, teachers' salaries across the state were inequitable among the races, as well as among different divisions within a single district. School district spending was…

The views of 33 superintendents in South Texas were obtained concerning the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act through a Likert-format survey. Results were that superintendents perceived NCLB as having limited, at best, impact in encouraging the development of more educational services; opening more communication between the district and parents;…

The purpose of this mixed methods follow-up single case study was two-fold: to determine if a school district was able to sustain a professional learning community (PLC) and to identify factors that enhanced, inhibited, or promoted the sustainability of a PLC from a district-wide perspective, with particular focus on how a change in leadership,…

In this study, 206 teachers, 35 school board presidents, and 37 superintendents/principals (n = 278) were surveyed regarding their views of effective leadership behaviors demonstrated by school leaders with dual role responsibilities through serving as both a school principal and as a superintendent in small rural school districts. Data were…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

This book demonstrates through case studies and expert analyses the impressive educational gains children can make when the best educational research, policy, and practice are aligned. This volume is a valuable resource to aspiring leaders, educational researchers, and current practitioners and a must-read for anyone who cares about the public…

This study examined the perceptions and the difference between perceptions of Texas school superintendents and school board members. In addition the study provided research to identify skills for superintendent preparation programs at the university level that are essential for strong superintendent and board relations. The study revealed ways to…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) follows education budgets and legislation during regular and special legislative sessions. The Legislative Reports follow education and budget issues from governors' proposals through final legislative actions in each of the 16 SREB states. The reports include bill numbers and legislative Web site…

This handbook is intended to provide school board members with a good basic understanding of the school board's duties and functions and its relationship to the community, the school administration, and the school staff. Chapters 1-4 focus in turn on the topics of school board organization and operation, school board-superintendent relationships,…